Gramps and I are on the road, headed for Arizona to visit our niece,her husband and our “spiritual” grandchildren x 6. Our rental car is packed to the roof with Christmas gifts for young and old. Yes, I know Christmas was 6 days ago, but what’s a day? Or two? Or more?

We have never had Christmas with this special family since we became honorary Dad/Mom and Gramps/Granny. They weren’t able to come to our house for the holiday, so . . . . logic says we take Christmas to them. Even though we had Christmas with the other children and grandchildren on the designated, accepted day, we still wanted to take Christmas to Arizona.

So here we are on December 31 celebrating Christmas away from home with our “new” daughter, son-in-law and 5 of the 6 “new” grandkids. And you know what? It feels exactly like Christmas did last week!

What is Christmas after all? It’s just a day. If you can’t enjoy the actual day, pick another. It will work just as well. Or do as we have done . . . . rejoice 2 or 3 times over. How fun is that?

I have a very special memory from my childhood of the year we had 2 Christmases. According to my parents, Santa had forgotten to stop at our house and was coming back to deliver our gifts. The 3 of us children bought this story completely and were excited beyond belief that Santa would do such a thing for us. We were treated like royalty at school! No one else had ever gotten such special treatment from Santa. All the kids thought we 3 had an inside link to the bearded man! It wasn’t until I was an adult that I figured out why this all happened . . . . my parents couldn’t afford Christmas and had to wait for the after-Christmas sales to get our gifts. Can you imagine how hard this was for them and yet they were able to make it into one of the best memories for us. That was the true gift we all got that year and none of us have ever forgotten. We “kids”, all in our 60’s, still talk about the year we had 2 Christmases as one of the best ever.

A true Christmas can happen any day, any where, with or without wrapped presents. The love, the sharing, the giving cannot be put in a box with a bow. Although I’m not discounting the thrill of opening a present, big or little, given with thought and creativity.

This “2nd” Christmas has everything the first one had last week . . . . family, laughter, surprises, thank yous, piles of wrapping paper,lost little plastic men, good food, shared music, rowdy boys, exhausted adults. The only things different are one squealing, giggly little girl (the only granddaughter) and the neighbors here are watching reruns and eating mac and cheese. I think we are definitely having more fun! Maybe every year should have 2 Christmases!